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Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

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Reference period
August 2022
Released
4/10/2022
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Key statistics

The August 2022 seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • Total dwellings approved rose 28.1%.
  • Private sector houses approved rose 4.1%, while private sector dwellings excluding houses increased 99.1%.
  • The value of non-residential building rose 15.1%.
  • The value of total building rose 23.5%.

Dwellings approved

August key figures
 Aug 22 (no.)Monthly change (%)Yearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
 Total dwelling units approved17,49728.1-9.5
 Private sector houses10,4594.1-14.4
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses6,76699.1-1.2
Trend
 Total dwelling units approved15,767-0.2-13.7
 Private sector houses10,1710.9-11.0
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses5,383-1.3-18.3
  1. Trend break added to 'Total dwelling units approved' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the number of dwellings approved in Australia rose 28.1% in August, following a 18.2% fall in July.

The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 0.2% in August, following a 0.4% rise in July.

  1. Trend break added to 'Private sector houses' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals rose 4.1% in August, to 10,459, following a 0.8% increase in July. Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved rose 99.1%, following a 45.8% fall in July - the lowest level recorded since January 2012.

The trend estimate for private sector house approvals rose 0.9% in August, following a 0.9% rise in July. Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 1.3%, following a 0.3% rise in July.

Seasonally adjusted summary, by state

By state, the number of dwelling approvals rose in all states: New South Wales (70.6%), Victoria (19.4%), Western Australia (13.6%), Queensland (9.5%), Tasmania (3.9%) and South Australia (3.5%), in seasonally adjusted terms.

Approvals for private sector houses rose in New South Wales (12.7%), Western Australia (8.9%), and Victoria (1.2%). Declines were recorded in South Australia (-4.5%) and Queensland (-0.1%), in seasonally adjusted terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, seasonally adjusted
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales2,53812.76,05670.6
Victoria3,2891.25,10919.4
Queensland2,069-0.13,1419.5
South Australia897-4.51,1813.5
Western Australia1,2188.91,38813.6
Tasmanianana2693.9
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia10,4594.117,49728.1

na not available

Trend summary, by state

Across Australia, the number of dwelling approvals decreased in Australian Capital Territory (-18.9%), Victoria (-3.4%), and Western Australia (-1.4%). Rises were recorded in Northern Territory (7.1%), New South Wales (3.7%), Tasmania (1.5%), South Australia (0.7%), Queensland (0.5%), in trend terms.

Approvals for private sector houses rose in South Australia (2.2%), Victoria (1.0%), New South Wales (0.4%), and Queensland (0.1%). Western Australia fell 0.6%, in trend terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, trend
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales2,3620.44,7513.7
Victoria3,2361.04,635-3.4
Queensland2,0590.13,1520.5
South Australia8962.21,1160.7
Western Australia1,191-0.61,455-1.4
Tasmanianana2731.5
Northern Territorynana757.1
Australian Capital Territorynana314-18.9
Australia10,1710.915,767-0.2

na not available

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
 Seasonally adjustedSeasonally adjustedTrendTrend
($m)Monthly change (%)($m)Monthly change (%)
New residential building7,64432.66,8142.3
Alterations and additions to residential building1,0605.41,0370.8
Total residential building8,70428.57,8512.1
Non-residential building4,68515.14,510-2.4
Total building13,38923.512,3610.4
  1. Trend break added to 'Total residential' trend series for September 2020 and February 2021.

Value of building approved, seasonally adjusted

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of total building approved rose 23.5% in August, following a 14.8% fall in July. The value of total residential building rose 28.5%, comprising of a 32.6% increase in new residential building, and a 5.4% rise in alterations and additions.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building rose 15.1%, following a 21.5% fall in July.

Value of building approved, trend

The trend estimate for the value of total building approved rose 0.4% in August, following a 0.1% rise in July. The value of total residential building increased 2.1%, comprised of a 2.3% increase in the value of new residential building and a 0.8% rise in the value of alterations and additions.

The trend estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 2.4% in August, following a 3.0% decrease in July.

Interactive map

Building approvals data can be viewed on an interactive map.

Note that the interactive map will be offline soon after this publication release and will be refreshed with the current month's data within 24 hours.

How to use

Geographic areas

Data downloads

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Dwellings approved

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Value of building approved

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Non-residential building approved

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Chain volume measures

Data files
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Demolitions

Data files

  • Table 87. Number of dwellings approved for demolition, original, states and territories

    Download xlsx [51.59 KB]

  • Table 88. Number of dwellings approved for demolition, by Greater Capital City Statistical Area - original

    Download xlsx [56.54 KB]

Small area datacubes

Data items

Building Approvals: Data items available by Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS)

Data files
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NSW

Data files
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Vic.

Data files
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Qld

Data files
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SA

Data files
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WA

Data files
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Tas.

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NT

Data files
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ACT

Data files

Validation table

Building Approvals: Data cube validation table

Data files
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Small area approvals (.csv)

Statistical Area Level 2

Data files

Local Government Area

Data files

Demolition approvals (.csv)

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the time period when using Data Explorer.

Help for: Data Explorer Datasets

Building Approvals by Greater Capital Cities Statistical Area (GCCSA) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2001 onwards

Building Approvals by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2016 onwards

Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2021) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2021/22

Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2022) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2022/23

GeoPackages

Data files

Dwellings revised by state

In this release, revisions are provided for the time period from July 2021 to July 2022. Further information about potential sources of revisions can be found in the feature article released with the with the February 2016 Building Approvals publication - "Revisions to Building Approval Statistics".

Revisions to the total number of dwelling units approved in this issue are:

Dwellings revised
  2021-222022-23
New South Wales177-7
Victoria52
Queensland-16318
South Australia4-
Western Australia15
Tasmania2-
Northern Territory--
Australian Capital Territory1-
Total2718

Post release changes

11/10/2022 - As advertised in the ABS future releases calendar, this additional information release contains the small area excel data cubes and csv files for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years. 

Article archive

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0.

Methodology

Building Approvals, Australia methodology, August 2022

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